SHOPPING FOR A REAL FOODIE IN YOUR LIFE?

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The first time I made this original recipe, it was a total disaster.

That really inspires confidence and makes you want the recipe, right?

Never fear, I’ve not only added tomato sauce, chicken, stock, and cheese, but I’ve also upped the spices considerably and offer both Mexican and Italian versions, PLUS I adapted it for the slow cooker. It was originally a simple pauper’s meal, low on the budget but also on flavor, and now it’s even simpler to put together but gets accolades whenever I serve it to the family.

Don’t Let Disasters Get in the Way of Good Food

The first time I tried the baked version, the rice and lentils didn’t get cooked, and I had to decide between crunchy rice or a very, very late dinner. We ended up with both, as I baked the dish twice as long as it called for and still had underdone rice. I’m not sure what made me try it again, but the remix has become a staple in the rotation, perhaps because it’s so easy and uses a lot of ingredients I often have on hand. I’m always trying to think of ways to use up my shredded chicken from the whole chickens I buy to make homemade chicken stock…which of course wasn’t even in the original uber-simple recipe. For an easy meatless meal, you could certainly omit the chicken.

Find this recipe, updated and perfected and with even more frugal tips and transformation options, along with 29 other bean recipes and a ton of information on cooking dry beans, the health benefits of beans, and ideas for bean haters in The Everything Beans Book, available now at Kitchen Stewardship!

In keeping with the “Keep it Simple” theme for this week, I’m happy to share this simple slow cooker meal with you. I think it will be the first one I make when we introduce rice after the grain-free experiment. I was tempted to jump into that this weekend, but I’m sure we should have more than one week with the legumes brought back in before foraying into “real” grains. We’ve already introduced lentils – here’s how I use lentils and some other recipes.

Did you make this recipe?

2 Tools for Real Food Success:

It’s never easy to keep up with real food goals! If my meal isn’t planned ahead and/or I don’t have the right food on hand, it’s SO tempting to give up and grab convenience food!

I have to almost trick myself into getting it right sometimes…like this:

Butcher Box

I love my raw milk farm, and they usually have beef for me too – but not all the cuts. And chicken is hard to come by. And pork is hit or miss.

I’m sure you’ve experienced the same sourcing frustrations!

The worst story is that we just bought half a pastured pig, but the processor didn’t offer a way to make bacon without nitrites. 🙁 So I got “fresh side pork” which looks just like bacon so I was hopeful, but it cooks up like…PORK! Most disappointing breakfast EVER.

That’s why I’m super excited about the November special offer from ButcherBox, my online source of incredibly high quality meat that I can always count on. A box from Butcher Box is guaranteed to be grassfed/organic/pastured/free range = all the labels important to your family’s health! And their bacon tastes like bacon. This cannot be underestimated!

NOVEMBER SPECIAL: New customers get a FREE package of bacon in EVERY box they order! Score!! (ends Nov. 30)

If you live in an area (like my mom) where organic local farms are nowhere to be found or have trouble sourcing certain meats or cuts, ButcherBox has you covered.

Recipe inspired by Cents to get Debt Free, where almost everyone loves her recipe. I must have been a fluke! But I’m glad for the disaster because it pushed me to make it much, much better in my humble opinion.

About Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship

I’m a Catholic wife and mother of four who wants the best of nutrition and living for her family. I believe that God calls us to be good stewards of all His gifts as we work to feed our families: time, finances, the good green earth, and of course, our healthy bodies. I'm the founder and boss lady here at Kitchen Stewardship -- welcome aboard!

36 Bites of Conversation So Far

So do you have to soak the lentils if you sprout them first? I’ve always wanted to try sprouting but I don’t want to do anything I have to turn around and dry. Lentils seem like a good thing to start off with.

Michelle, I’m embarrassed to notice this comment has no reply! I don’t know how I missed answering it… You wouldn’t need to sub anything for the chicken, and yes, the rice and lentils soak overnight in the water, then drain the water and add chicken broth. 🙂 Katie

Krissa, I have no idea how I missed all these questions on this post! Sheesh. So sorry.

Yes, you discard the soaking water (saving some if you’re doing the accelerated fermentation method), then add the chicken stock and other ingredients. No need to repeat the water unless your slow cooker is letting too much evaporate.

Shannon, Sorry I’m so late to reply; we’ve been on vacation! I’ve never heard of brown lentils, though, only green or red. I will say my green lentils look brown, so maybe that’s what you have. Give it a whirl! 😉 Katie

About the lentils. Brown are the most common kind you can get in the store. If they are green it is usually stated on the package. And red are more of an orange color. But the red almost dissolve when cooked, then the brown can get soft if cooked a long time and the green hold their shape the best even in long cooking. Hope this helps!

So if you are soaking rice for the first time, would you have to soak the rice for 24 hours then soak it again with the lentil the night before making this recipe? Or would the soak with the lentils and rice be the first soak of the rice?

i DID try it (roughly cut up skinless/boneless breasts) and it turned out great! Logistically i didn’t add it until the lentils, rice, and garlic had been on low for a couple of hours, then turned it on high for about 2-3 hours. my crockpot cooks very quickly, so i wouldn’t necessarily reccomend that for everyone.

I’m sorry, but I must be missing something. I’ve got my 1/2 cup rice and 3/4 cup lentils soaking in 1 cup water, but the water is already absorbed and there’s not going to be any left to drain off by morning. Am I doing something wrong?

Heidi, Yes, it could! It started out on another blog as a casserole, baked in the oven, but the rice always seemed crunchy for me. It would take about 90 minutes at 350 if I remember right…or look up how to use a Dutch oven as a slow cooker – I think you can cook at 200F for 4-6 hours just like a slow cooker. If you try it, I’d love it if you’d comment again and I can update the post. Thanks! 🙂 Katie

Please remember that I’m just a gal who reads a lot and spends way too much time in her kitchen. I’m not a doctor, nurse, scientist, or even a real chef, and certainly the FDA hasn't evaluated anything on this blog. Any products mentioned are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Please talk to your health professional (or at least your spouse) before doing anything you might think is questionable. Trust your own judgment…I can’t be liable for problems that occur from bad decisions you make based on content found here.

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